As of the 2011-12 school year, the school had an enrollment of 882 students and 85.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.35:1. There were 222 students (25.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 75 (8.5% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

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Awards, recognition and rankings[edit]

The school was the 185th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2014 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", using a new ranking methodology.[5] The school had been ranked 173rd in the state of 328 schools in 2012, after being ranked 262nd in 2010 out of 322 schools listed.[6] The magazine ranked the school 241st in 2008 out of 316 schools.[7] The school was ranked 254th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state.[8]

Schooldigger.com ranked the school 254th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (a decrease of 2 positions from the 2009 rank) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[9]

History[edit]

Pinelands Regional High School officially opened on September 5, 1979, as a Junior-Senior High School, originally housing grades 7-12 from Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor, Bass River, and Eagleswood. Prior to the opening of the school, students from those towns had attended Southern Regional School District in Manahawkin.

The building originally housed grades 7-8 on the third floor, 9-10 on the second, and 11-12 on the first. The building featured an experimental "Open classroom" design, where a large group of students of varying skill levels would be in a single, large classroom with several teachers overseeing them; and contained no interior walls. However, this format didn't last long, and in the 1980s, the rooms were walled off, and separated by floor-to-ceiling folding partitions.

In 1991, Pinelands Middle School opened across the street for students in grades 7-8. Also in the 90s, a new building was completed next to the high school, which houses a daycare center called "Rainbow Express". Students taking Child Care classes go to class in this building to help with the daycare kids. In 2002, the Middle School was expanded and the 9th grade was moved there. When the expansion was completed at the Middle School, it was renamed "Pinelands Regional Junior High School" while the High School was renamed the "Senior High School", although this name is rarely used.

Most of the High School is centered around a "Commons" area, which is a two-story open court with skylights, benches, and planters. The commons is home to many of the school's events, such as the Junior Prom, Semi-formal, and Jazz & Java Art show. Most of the commons feeds into a 3-story mall-like hallway where most of the classrooms are off of. Most elective classes, such as Art rooms, Shop classes, Auto tech, etc. are located in the one-story "D-wing" away from the rest of the classrooms, surrounding the Auditorium. This wing also houses remedial and self-contained classes, causing the remedial students to be called "D-wingers". Some of these classes have since been moved to a new off-site building built near the Athletic fields that opened in 2009.

Most of the school, especially the Commons area, has remained unchanged since its 1979 opening. Elements from the decade, such as globe lighting, planters, and earth tones are present. Recent major improvements to the school include renovated science labs and locker rooms, expanded parking lot, permanent lighting for the football field, and repainting of the lockers, which were formerly painted in a 70s-esque repeating orange-yellow-red-brown pattern were painted a dark green.

In 2010, severe budget cuts resulted in the removal of several teachers and programs, including Freshmen sports and the 3-day Pinelands Experience, which was held annually at the school since the opening.

Athletics[edit]

The Pinelands Regional High School Wildcats compete in the Shore Conference, an athletic conference made up of private and public high schools centered at the Northern Jersey Shore.[10] All schools in this conference are located within Monmouth County and Ocean County. The league operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[11] With 772 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2014-15 school year as South Jersey, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 772 to 1,082 students in that grade range.[12]

Pinelands Regional's strongest athletic sport is wrestling where it has won 9 division titles, 2 district titles, and has been ranked in the top 20 in the state four times.

The school's Amy Beykrich was the individual cross country champion in Group II in 1995.[13]

Another notable athlete is Joshua Allegretti in bowling who set the school record for highest single game (299) and highest season average (201) during the 2007-2008 season.

The School's Cheerleading Team was also State Champions in 2012, and has been Third in the Nation for the years of 2010,2011,2012.

Drama department[edit]

Pinelands Regional's drama and theater program has been highly successful, especially in the past several years. In 2010, the team won 19 awards at the annual Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey competition at Rutgers University, including 8 Governor's awards, which are the highest honors in the state to be given for education.[14]

WCAT-TV[edit]

WCAT-TV is Pinelands Regional's local Public-access televisioncable TV station sponsored by Comcast Cable. It is located on channel 21 for the area that the district serves. Most of the cast and crew is made up of students who take the video production classes as an elective. The channel shows live morning announcements at 8:20am daily, followed by a commercial or short skit made by members of the WCAT class. Throughout the day, especially during lunch periods, other school programs or past school events are shown on the channel. The remainder of the time the channel broadcasts school and community events through the Infochannel program, along with a simulcast of lite-rock station WWZY. The communities which it serves are Little Egg Harbor, Tuckerton, Eagleswood and Bass River, New Jersey.

Lily McBeth (born 1934), transgender former substitute teacher at the school who made national news after undergoing a sex-change operation and quit a position as a substitute teacher at the school.[17]